1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of computing system data backup and, more particularly, to utilizing an endpoint virtualization aware backup system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As computer memory storage and data bandwidth increase, so does the amount and complexity of data that business manages. A large portion of the data may involve content managed for a company by a dedicated server. This dedicated server may include or be coupled to a data storage subsystem comprising hard disks or other storage devices for the storage of a large amount of information. This dedicated server and storage subsystem may provide users the ability to search and access information, including electronic documents, photographic or other still images, video streams, audio files, volume image backup files, etc.
Because the various examples of stored data may frequently contain crucial information, the contents of information servers and end-user systems may be backed up to a backup storage to prevent loss of data. In such a case, the dedicated server and storage subsystem may include a backup system. A backup system attempts to reduce the amount of data and time to backup required data to protect a machine. Some methods use de-duplication to reduce the amount of data to backup, but such methods may still consume time and network bandwidth to implement. For example, performing a scheduled backup, even an incremental backup, on an end-user laptop via a network, consumes time to scan files and detect changed files. The scanning and detecting of files consumes a large amount of time prior to using a de-duplication or other method.
In addition to consuming a large amount of time in performing backups, administering and supporting an information technology (IT) infrastructure on a large number of end-user systems presents a significant challenge. With so many distributed systems, it may be slow and/or difficult to roll out new applications, update existing ones, remove obsolete ones, and backup data across an entire organization. Also, without the ability to tightly control end-point environments, supporting and troubleshooting end-user systems and efficiently protecting crucial data may become extremely burdensome. Administrators may need more flexibility in the methods they use to protect their systems.
In view of the above, methods and mechanisms for enabling applications for efficiently backing up data on endpoint user systems within an IT infrastructure are desired.